On a trip to Brick Lane the other day I managed to buy some 35mm film for my camera in order to start consistent documentation of my process. The man behind the till kindly offered his advice and I ended up leaving with a roll of film that I didn’t intend on buying. Getting into a conversation about Lomography, he pointed me towards a roll of film that didnt produce quite the intensely coloured results as lomographic film, but was nevertheless still susceptible to light leaks. There might be some connection to be made between my choice to buy this film and the nature of my work, but I’ll leave it as mere serendipity for the time being. Another happy accident occurred right after however. My partner was having a conversation with a lady stood behind a stall of cyanotype prints. Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print and was invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, primarily for making copies of documents and for botanical illustrations. After talking to the lady myself, who turned out to be the artist too, I was intrigued by its simplicity, striking blue colours, and its potential for creative experimentation. At the start of the year, I came across a cyanotype printing workshop somewhere within the UAL ecosystem. Unfortunately, by the time I had discovered the workshop there were no spaces left, and I soon abandoned this minor interest. Being exposed to it for a second time made me do some extended research when returning home. In another stroke of synchronicity, and to my disbelief, I found out that cyano-bacteria is what gives lichen their blue-green colour. Despite this, the prefix ‘cyano’ is only used in both cases as it means ‘dark blue’ in Greek. Even though the purposes and contexts of cyanotype printing and cyano-bacteria are entirely different, their shared use of the prefix feels relevant to me somehow. Over and above this, as I proceed to learn about lichen biology, cyanotype printing stands out as a fun way to record foraged lichen, mirroring the actions of 19th century botanists. I’ve been thinking about how to bring a visual element to my final work, and this is definitely a process I will explore more of.
